Poem shortlisted for prize + performance imminent

One of my poems has been shortlisted in the Live Canon 2013 International Poetry Competition.

The poem, “John Simpson’s burka”, will be performed by the Live Canon ensemble along with the other 20-odd shortlisted poems at the prize-giving event, which begins at 2:30pm on Sunday November 24 at Greenwich Theatre, in the general area of London, and is set to last till about 4pm. The overall winner will also be announced at the event. Nobody knows who it will be yet. If you’d like to go along and witness the poems being performed and the announcements etc., you can contact Live Canon and state your intent. I’m not sure if you have to pay (or if so how much) or whether the event is open to the general public.

I will be going along if my wife has given birth by then. If not, I’ll be staying in Pembrokeshire getting increasingly nervous.

All the shortlisted poems are being published in the 2013 Live Canon collection, which you can pre-order here. Alternatively, you can pick up a copy (for CASH) at the event.

I’m very happy to have been shortlisted, particularly for such an unusual (and, I had thought, unshortlistable) poem. I can’t wait to see, one way or another, what they make of it by way of performance. (And indeed the other poems that have been shortlisted!)